Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) signals reduced from Gayatri Mantra fire oblations during Yagya

Hemant Patidar ,Rakesh Varma ,Vikash Kumar

doi:10.36018/ijyr.v2i1.31

Hemant Patidar , Rakesh Varma + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.36018/ijyr.v2i1.31

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Abstract

Galvanik skin response (GSR) is the measurement of the autonomic activation of sweat glands in the skin for depicting stress, emotional arousal and relaxation pattern. Yagya is a vedic ritual composed of various rhythmic chanting of mantra. Since Vedic times, it is widely and traditionally performed for various purposes including peace, happiness and mental and physical wellbeing. Hence, the present study attempted to explore the GSR pattern during Yagya ritual. The study measured GSR pattern in the 12 participants during Yagya ritual and evaluated changes in GSR signal during chanting of different mantra of the Yagya ritual. The result indicated GSR signal during Yagya ritual followed a defined pattern. Median GSR signals was decreased after fire ritual i.e. later-half of the Yagya compared to first-half of the Yagya (median fold change decrease 1.38; n=12; p=0.0010). Interestingly, this decrease in GSR achieved significantly during Gayatri Mantra fire sacrifice (median fold change decrease 1.35; n=12; p=0.0024), and remained low compared to that of in starting phase of Yagya ritual, indicating significance of Gayatri mantra in Yagya ritual to achieve relaxation state. Overall, the study indicated that vedic traditional ritual of Yagya potentially have a positive effect on our emotions for achieving relaxation.

Highlights

Galvanik skin response (GSR) is the measurement of the autonomic activation of sweat glands in the skin
Yagya ritual was divided into 28 sections
All sessions [1-28] were marked on the GSR graphs of all 12 participants (Figure 1A-D; Supplemental Table 1). These sessions were further grouped into clusters based on the similar subtheme of Yagya ritual

Summary

Introduction

Galvanik skin response (GSR) is the measurement of the autonomic activation of sweat glands in the skin. The changes in skin sweat gland conduction known as electrodermal activity (EDA) are measured through electrodes [1]. A group of Stéphanie Khalfa et al from Department of Psychology, University of Montreal, Canada has studied changes in GSR level when music of four types of emotional arousals was applied. They found GSR signals during stimulating emotions, fear and happiness were found to be greater than as compared to the relaxing emotions, sadness and peacefulness [2]. GSR signal is lowered when person is relaxed with unfamiliar relaxing music compared to unfamiliar arousal music indicating GSR is serving as measurement of the arousal and relaxation with specific type of music [3]

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